Surprise

Surprise when I came out the water from my training swim today: we are going tonight at 8 p.m. Dover time.

My the Channel Gods be with us!

Maybe Friday AND Saturday!

We may start our swim on Friday night around 8 p.m. and swim into Saturday, if Alison's relay goes out tonight. Or we will start on Saturday morning around 10 a.m. and land late at night, maybe into Sunday. The wind starts turning tonight and will be coming from north-west, pushing the swimmers, finally!

The good thing about swimming into the night: the night is usually calmer, you will have daylight and hopefully some sun for the harder part of the swim, it's a great experience swimming into the day and you also will land in daylight and avoid getting torn bloody all over when trying to climb over the barnacle-covered rocks in the dark to reach dry land. I am estimating around 15 hours for my swim ( in 1985 it was 17 hours, but friends who are slower were faster on their swims - depends a lot on the wind and currents).

Saturday or Friday?

The weather and the forecasts keep changing, but my guess is Saturday. Some people made it yesterday, some didn't, due to hypothermia, seasickness, lack of mental preparation etc. Today all the boats stayed in the harbour. The water today felt much colder, almost arctic, but it was quite calm in the harbour and the sun is out, warming. Swam with Rashmi again. Tonight Marie-Therese will arrive and we will get everything ready and worked out. It's my Channel-anniversary today, but there is no special feeling - the future is more exciting than the past. Still I am amazed at how calm and peaceful I feel.

Options

Just talked to Alison, my pilot. She offered me several options. Friday is taken by a relay, but they could change to Saturday. Tomorrow and Thursday seem to be swimmable, but still with windforce 3-4 in the wrong direction. Saturday would be calmer and northerly winds. Wednesday is out of the question for me. Will check the weather charts again tomorrow.

Looks like Saturday or Friday now (Sept. 10)/

Exciting news: Swimmers are out - and more hope!

Arrived in Dover last night by train and ferry - with an amazingly positive inner feeling, no matter the outer circumstances which only seem to be improving. Moved into a nice little attic twin bed room at Victoria Guest House WITH A VIEW TO THE HARBOUR AND THE CHANNEL! And with great breakfast and wireless laptop (if it works), with extremely supportive landlords and more Channel swimming company.

Swimmers are out today!

The yacht harbour at Dover Marina, where the pilot boats are moored, looks quite empty today.
A number of boats with their swimmers including Alison with Roco went out early this morning. We are all very excited about it. On the ferry yesterday it didn't look too bad - wavy yes, but not unswimmable, with north-westerly winds. More swimmers are getting ready to go tomorrow morning, if they get the confirmation tonight, but right now Tuesday looks windier again. Wednesday and Thursday are looking quite good right now, then it is getting windier again on Friday. Alison took a swimmer or a relay out today - so there is only one person or team before me now!

Good omen

When I came to the harbour around 9:30 this morning for a two hour training swim - after a huge Channel swimmer breakfast of porridge, eggs, beans, potatoes and toast at the Victoria Guest House with another swimmer from California and his crew (and pizza last night) - who was there, as if waiting for me? Rashmi, the 18 year old Indian girl and her family, still training and waiting for a chance to do her 2-way attempt! Great hello and lots of chatting and picture taking, until Kiran, her mother chased us off into the water. But first we still had to admire the sun partly covered by a tiny cloud, creating a rainbow halo-effect for just a minute! Very unusual! Rashmi is taking it as a good omen. "You came and are bringing the sun!" she told me. I wish I could bring about her swim! She is still 4th place with her pilot ("left-over" swimmers from earlier tides have to get to the end of the line behind the official swimmers of each tide). On Monday they will be going back to India, no matter what.

Two hour swim and international company

I totally enjoyed the two hours of swimming, it felt smooth, easy, powerful, plus I enjoyed swimming side by side with nice company, including another Indian girl we met in the middle of the harbour. After taking off our googles, we realised we know each other from the Zurich lake swim last year. She may go out tomorrow!

The water felt "crisp", and it did bite my face at first. The lake and pool had definitey been warmer, uncomfortably warm for me. But luckily my body felt fine, in the beginning I was even wondering for a second if I was still dressed. More rest and food plus the long swim weekend in the lake seem to have some positive effects! Fingers started fluttering again after an hour from the cold, but after two hours they were fine. Better than last time in Dover! The water on the left side of the harbour was quite choppy again, but that makes it only more interesting and better training. Two or three more days of acclimatisation and I am definitely ready to go!

Cosmic Game

The only constant thing is change - also in regard to Channel weather forecasts. Right now it looks much gloomier again for the tide starting today, but of course that could change again. And reality need not abide by the forecasts. Now there is only a relay and a solo swimmer before me. And there are new enthusiastic and experienced helpers confirmed: Marie-Therese, who helped Bea in 2006, will come to Dover on Tuesday - and Angela, a physiotherapist who was on the World Harmony Run in Australia, would join the van-crew and be a support-biker, if we get to swim and make it.

I bought my train ticket to Calais for the 7th and I feel it is the right thing to go. It feels nicer to celebrate my Channel anniversary on the 9th in Dover, it will be good to swim again in cold water, although tapering, and if it doesn't happen this tide I will do another long swim in Dover and only come back for the 2nd tide of September, if the weather looks good. But I am still hopeful for this tide - miracles do happen. (In 1985 my helpers had to come three times and then the day of the swim was great - so I am used to the game, it is just a matter of time, and also money, of course.)

This time, with only one helper and coming late, we will be staying at Victoria Guest House, closer to the harbour and very supportive of Channel swimmers.

Back to Dover on Sept. 7th

With a little help from my friends I will be back in Dover for the next neap tides (Sept 6-11) soon. Just checked the pressure charts: a high pressure zone is pushing its way up! High pressure usually means less wind, i.e. good swimming conditions. The first days of the tide still look not so good, but its getting better from Monday on and the 10th and 11th are looking quite promising right now also on windfnderfor example. The only thing, apart from the fact that the weather forecasts can change within a few hours: there are still swimmers before me! But one or two days after the neap tides (12 and 13th) might still be swimmable, too, if the weather is right. So I am quite excited and hopeful now!



Met office pressure forecast for Sunday 7th: the high is pushing up towards the British Isles

There are so many swimmers waiting - and quite a few left over from last tides. I really hope we are getting a chance this time. Good luck to all!

(I am aware how tiny our weather problems are compared to some much more serious weather issues on other continents!)

Karteek did it again! Congratulations!

Last Friday (Aug. 29) Karteek Clarke from Edinburgh, one of the members of the international Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, has conquered the Channel for the 9th time since he got kind of hooked on the Channel in 1997! His intention was to never again go on a spring tide, but since Friday was one of the very few good days this summer, he took his chance and succeeded under the able guidance of Dave Whyte (good thing he hasn't retired yet) in just under 15 hours! Congratulations!

For Karteek, the swims most of the time have not been easy. He knows how it feels to want to stop swimming after only a couple of hours out there, no matter what the financial implications, the year-long efforts put in or how many much longer swims you might have done in training. His experience is that you can learn to not give in to this feeling and just take it as an experience, if necessary for a few hours. At some point it will lift like a veil or disappear like a fiever. The only thing is not to surrender to it, but to know it is only temporary, even if it may seem like an eternity. Cliff Golding used the nice expression: to work to the point where the "secret inner doors" open - and you swim in a sea of peace, if you are lucky!

Karteek shared a few tips in regard to feeding: he prepared all his feed bottles in advance (just bought water bottles, the caps are easy to take off) and his helper would warm them in some hot water on the boat, and he brought his handmixer to mix bananas into rice milk (I would go for soy) with some protein powder, which can be a nice change for the sweet carbo stuff, especially after 5 or 6 hours. He did get a bit seasick on this swim, too, but was able to feed properly again after the 5th hour.

Hope to read a longer account of your swim soon!

An amusing helper's report about Karteek's and Mate's very serious Channel swims in 2003